Concrete Igloo
by beneaththesea
Summary: While responding to a call, Sam and Jules get cut off from the rest of the team, giving them some alone time and  leaving a shrunken Team 1 to diffuse the situation.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is my first Flashpoint fic and my first fanfic in general in a couple of years, so I hope it works. As far as the timeframe goes, I'm thinking is probably shortly before Toth shows up. I don't yet have a firm idea of exactly where this is going to go, so reviews are appreciated.

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><p>"Can you just put the gun down so that we can talk?" Sergeant Parker calmly called to the subject. "I just want to make sure you're both okay."<p>

"Just leave us alone!" the subject yelled back as he alternated pointing the gun at his hostage and at the SRU officer standing in front of him, unaware of the rest of the team moving into positions around the underground parking garage. "We're fine! Just leave us alone!"

"Can you tell me what you're doing here today? I mean, people don't usually hold a gun to someone's head for no reason," Greg tried to reason while looking at the hostage, a young woman in her mid-twenties. Despite scrapes and torn jeans from the abduction, she appeared surprisingly calm.

"I _told_ you," the subject screamed, putting the gun back to the woman's temple, "to leave us alone! She's fine for now, just a few scrapes and bruises, but she won't be if you don't let me do what I have to do!"

"I have the solution," Sam's voice came over the radio from where he was positioned behind a column.

"Copy that, Sam."

"_Boss, a woman identifying herself as Marissa Hanley just called 9-1-1 to report her daughter being forcefully removed from her house and shoved into a car,"_ Winnie said over the radio. _"She identified the subject as being her daughter's ex-boyfriend, Troy Sutter. He works in the building you're in right now."_

"Did she mention her daughter's name?" he asked, hoping the caller had given him enough information to start making a connection with the subject and his hostage.

"_She didn't say. If I can get her back on the line, do you want me to patch her through?"_

"See if you can get her back on the line first Winnie, if she saw her daughter taken she might be too distraught to help much," Greg said, picturing the hostage getting dragged out of the house. "Spike, see what you can dig up on Troy Sutter, we need to know if he's our guy or not."

"Already on it, boss. Gimme a minute, I'm digging."

"Something just doesn't look right here, boss," Jules said from behind the next column over from Sam. She watched from behind the subject as he continued to wave the gun around, occasionally pointing it at the hostage.

"She's right, we're missing something here," Ed said from his perch on the edge of the ramp leading up to the next level of the garage. "We're missing something, and it's something big. The body language from both of them is wrong."

"I hear ya Eddie," Greg said as he watched the subject continue to wave the gun around and the hostage remaining just a little too calm. "Can you lower the gun a little?" he called to the subject. "We don't want anybody getting hurt here, Troy. It is Troy, right?"

"Why don't you just leave us alone? We weren't bothering anybody, the garage was empty until you guys showed up," the subject spat, ignoring Greg's question, before putting the gun back to his hostage's head. "But if you insist on talking, I might have to kill her, because now _you're _bothering _me_."

"It's an alias!" Spike said quickly over the radio. "Troy Sutter died two years ago in a car-". He was cut off by the sudden flash and explosion between the pillars Sam and Jules were taking cover behind.

Falling debris blocked their view of the situation and the rest of the team. "No solution," Sam stated before asking if anybody knew what just happened.

"Looks like it was a distraction," Wordy responded as he noticed the subject lowering the gun. From this angle and the way he was holding the gun, Wordy could see that the safety had been on the whole time.

"Regroup!" Greg yelled to his team as the sound of automatic gunfire came from just outside the garage and started moving towards them.

Sam and Jules were the closest to the exit of the garage but as soon as they started to move around the debris pile towards the rest of their team, another explosion rocked the concrete columns near them, blocking any chance of getting to the their team or the exit. "Shit!" Sam exclaimed. "They've got grenades, whoever they are. Jules, stick close to me, I have a feeling there's going to be more where those two came from.

"Boss, we're cut off from you. Looks like the only way we can go right now is directly into the firefight," Jules informed Greg and the rest of the team as she knew they were all listening to find out the status of their missing teammates.

"Hold tight," Greg told them as another grenade flew in their direction.

"Copy that. I don't think we'll be going anywhere anyway, looks like we're blocked in now," Sam answered. "Spike, you see any way out of here?"

"You know, Sam, they don't usually include grenade-damage escape routes in blueprints. I'll see what I can find, but in the meantime, can I suggest trying a shovel?" Spike commented with a bit of a smirk.

"Thanks for that wonderful little piece of wisdom," Sam responded sarcastically. "Last time I checked, though, my name was Braddock, not Inspector Gadget."

"Samtastic, you've let me down," Spike let out a small laugh before saying seriously "I'll let you know when I've got something for you."

"Sam, Jules," Greg started as Wordy and Ed approached him with the two suspects in custody. "We're going to see if we can find a way outside. Winnie, what's going on out there?"

"_Reports of shots fired. I don't have anything more than that. Team Three is on its way_."

"Looks like you're stuck there for a while guys. I can't find any ways out of that little igloo you're in," Spike finally got back to them. "Boss, there's a service door with stairs to street level just past the ramp Ed was on. As far as I can tell, it's still accessible."

After looking around at all the fallen concrete that surrounded them, Sam turned to Jules. "Looks like it'll be just the two of us for a while."


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Thanks for the reviews guys, it's definitely made me feel welcome here. Let me know what you think. An unfortunately I don't own Flashpoint, boo.

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><p>"Spike, what can you tell me about what's outside that door?" Greg asked, moving over to stand next to Spike at the mobile command post he had set up in a corner of the garage.<p>

"Not much, boss. Looking at the security feed, looks like that camera's been broken for quite a while, so that's not going to help us. All the other cameras are video only, so there's no telling if there's a riot right in front of the door or a homeless guy sleeping in a box."

"Any alarms on the door?" Ed questioned as he moved towards the door while Wordy secured the subjects near one of the concrete columns, setting up an impromptu holding area. "I don't need a crowd with grenades and who knows what else going ape-shit on my team."

"Well there was until about two minutes ago when I disabled it." Spike smirked. "You guys've got to give me a bit of credit sometimes.

"Your ego doesn't need to be inflated anymore than it already is," Wordy joked as he joined Ed at the non-descript steel door.

"Ed, Wordy, can you get me eyes outside? I don't want to send my team out there without knowing what we're getting ourselves into," Greg cautioned as Spike continued trying to get security feed from the outside of the building.

"Boss, the outside cameras have been going down one after the other, with the exception of the one by that door," Spike stated, his brows furrowed. "My guess is this was planned and somebody is covering their tracks now."

"Getting eyes on the other side of this door isn't going to be easy, boss," Ed responded. "We've got concrete block walls, most likely with bricks on the outside, and a heavy steel door that looks to be pretty much sealed around the sides to keep fires out."

Ed examined the door a bit further then continued. "Any hope of stealth is going to go out the window if we try to drill through any of this for a better look."

"Copy that, Eddie."

"Or," Spike piped up, "you could just open the door and stick your head out. Time stamps show the most recent cameras to stop transmitting are all on the opposite side of the building from you. You should be good."

Ed cracked open the door and Wordy stuck the mirror outside. "Clear... and clear," he determined, withdrawing the mirror and pushing the door open further.

"Boss, we're heading out," Ed informed him while gesturing to Wordy to follow the wall north toward the alley at the side of the building.

"Spike, see if you can find out what they know," Greg nodded towards the subjects who were sitting just out of earshot. "I'm going to find out what the situation is inside the igloo, as you called it."

Greg watched the lanky officer make his way over to the subjects, trying to look imposing with his hand resting on the handle of his holstered Glock. Taking the seat Spike had just vacated, he shook his head, thinking that Spike had never outgrown the kids' version of cops and robbers.

He watched for a few moments as the blips representing his team moved around the screen, Wordy and Ed moving quickly along the outside of the building, Spike shifting back and forth between the two subjects in front of him and Sam and Jules in the concrete igloo. One of them appeared to be pacing while the other remained mostly stationary. He hoped this didn't mean one of them was injured by a piece of loose debris falling after the explosions. He shook off the thought, jumping to conclusions could get people killed, he knew.

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><p>Sam paced the area not much bigger than an average two-car garage, rifle still in hand, while Jules sat against a mostly intact concrete column in the center of the space, keeping an eye on the cracks in the ceiling and looking for possible new hazards.<p>

"If you're going to pace, you wanna put the rifle down? I doubt anybody's going to be calling 'Scorpio' on any these rocks," Jules commented as her eyes shifted to look for possible openings in the newly formed block walls around them. "What are you looking for, anyway?"

"Trying to figure out the blast pattern. Grenades are like bombs, they're unique, but grenades of the same type will all blow up pretty much the same way, just like a bunch of bombs made by the same guy will," Sam explained, pausing at an area where the concrete was darkened more than the rest.

"Ok, but that doesn't tell me why you're walking around with your rifle," Jules interrupted his lecture. "The situation's changed here, Sam. This isn't something that'll end by negotiation or somebody getting shot."

"Fine," he conceded, putting the weapon down next to the backpack he'd been carrying up until the blast occurred before moving back across the dusty floor to stare at the darkened patch of ceiling again.

"_Sam! Jules!_" Greg's voice crackles through their earpieces. "_Can you hear me?_"

"A bit broken up, Sarge, but you're clear enough", Jules responded, watching Sam continue to stare at the ceiling.

"_Your comm. links went offline for a few moments; there must be some kind of interference in here. What's the situation in there guys?_" Greg questioned cautiously, trying to keep any apprehension out of his voice.

"Everything looks to be stable for now. No telling what another explosion will do, though." Jules eyed Sam as he quickly typed something into his phone. "Sam's checking out the blast patterns on the ceiling."

"Boss," Sam started, walking over towards Jules, "based on what I'm seeing on the ceiling and the way the debris has piled up, my guess is that the grenades are military, probably old Russian ones. We saw them fairly often in Afghanistan, but they're pretty common on the black market here apparently."

As he spoke, he showed Jules what he'd typed on his phone: _Is he checking up on us?_

She nodded to him as Parker told them to sit tight for the time being. "_Keep your comm. links open, we might need the extra heads later when we've got a better handle on what's really going on here._"

_Great_, Sam mouthed sarcastically, reaching out for Jules' hand, finally feeling that his scene evaluation was done and it was safe to relax a bit where they were.

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><p>"Boss, looks like I've finally got some of the story for you," Spike began as he came back over to the command post. "Looks like our gunman's name is Steve Murray. He says he was approached a couple of days ago by somebody he met on an online message board. He said they offered him five grand to stage a distraction that had to involve SRU otherwise he wouldn't receive the money. The 'hostage' is Lisa Hanley, Steve's girlfriend. It seems like she knew what was going down from the start. The only thing they can't get straight is if they were supposed to stage the distraction here or anywhere <em>but<em> here. He says it was supposed to be here, she says otherwise."

"Good work, Spike," Greg said, getting up from the chair. "The mother must know something about what's going on here because she gave us a fake name for the boyfriend. Winnie, see if you can get the mother back on the line, I want to see what she knows. Spike, see what you can dig up about Murray and Hanley."

"Already on it, Boss," Spike answered, already seated and typing away.

"Eddie, proceed with caution! The firefight outside might be a further distraction from where we really need to be or it might be the real thing. We may have a situation in the building above and it has not being cleared by any uniforms."

"_Boss, all I'm getting is a busy signal,_" Winnie informed him.

"Keep trying, Winnie. Just keep trying."

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><p>As Ed and Wordy rounded the corner to the front of the building they were met with the sight of a large crowd and the sound of approaching squad cars.<p>

As the sirens got louder a woman hidden in the crowd suddenly screamed and several guns were heard firing, inciting more screams in the crowd and people starting to run in every direction.

"This is _not_ what we need right now!" Ed spat, frustrated with a situation that was quickly getting out of hand. "Winnie, where's Team three?"

"_Boss, Lisa Hanley's mother is dead!_" Spike blurts out abruptly.

Out of the corner of his eye, Wordy saw something get thrown from the crowd toward the building.

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><p>Sam sat next to Jules with his hand resting on her left thigh, only half listening to the chatter in his right ear.<p>

"_Take cover!_" He heard Wordy yell just as another explosion rocked the building. He rolled over onto Jules to shield her from the new debris that had started to fall around them.

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><p><em>Ok, so not too much of Sam and Jules yet, but I've got to deal with those comm. links first, but then, they've got concrete falling around them so are they really worried about being overheard right now? Stay tuned and find out.<em>


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thanks for the reviews so far guys, I hope you continue to enjoy it.

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><p>"Team One, status!" Greg demanded as soon the shaking and noise of the explosion around him had died down enough for him to at least him himself think.<p>

"_No harm_," Ed and Wordy responded in unison, always in sync with each other.

Spike gave Greg thumbs up while stating "no harm" for the benefit of the others.

They waited for a response from inside the igloo but were rewarded only by a near deafening silence.

"Sam, Jules, status!" Greg tried to cover his growing concern with impatience. As the seconds ticked by without a response, he took a peak at the screen in front of Spike, noting the panel in the corner showing the positions of each of his team members. The almost superimposed blips of Sam and Jules weren't moving.

"I'm sure they're fine," Spike tried to reassure his boss. "Do you hear that?" he asked, pointing at the comm. link in his ear, referring to a slight high pitched whine.

Greg nodded as he took off his cap and nervously ran his left hand over what little hair he had left.

"Interference," Spike stated. "Depending on how close the source of it is to them, they may not be able to hear us at all."

"Get EMS on standby just in case. There's no way to know what's happened in there."

"Copy that, boss"

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><p>"<em>What's going on up there, guys?<em>" Greg's voice asked in Ed and Wordy's ears as they watched squad cars arriving to disperse the growing crowd.

"Other than the guy with the grenade, this looks like a crowd of curious civilians. Maybe one of them saw something," Ed paused, noticing a security guard jogging toward them from the front doors. "Hang on, boss, we might be about to get some intel."

"Mike Rand, head of security," the man introduced himself, extending a hand to them.

"Officers Lane and Wordsworth, SRU," Ed responded, ignoring the man's extended hand and instead directing him back inside as they followed.

"What can you tell me about what's going on out there?" Ed asked as soon as the glass entrance doors closed behind them. "Has anyone worth noting come through the lobby here in the last little while?"

"Yeah, that's just it," Mike began. "Just after those explosions in the garage started, this guy came through here carrying a black duffel bag and talking on his phone."

"Did you hear any of what he was saying?" Wordy inquired, taking in how young the man standing in front of him looked.

"Not very much. I heard him say something about a foreclosure and a CEO, then something that kinda sounded like 'he's gonna get it', but I can't be sure of that. He was mumbling as he passed the security desk over there," he paused, pointing toward the now empty desk, "he sounded pretty calm, but it was an eerie calm. It was weird. He was headed straight to the elevators over there, though, so it seems like he knew exactly where he was going."

Ed stepped away to update Greg and Spike while Wordy pressed Mike for any other information that might help them and a description of the subject.

"Boss, you and Spike had better get up here quick, looks like we might have a hostage situation in the works."

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><p>Jules yanked the comm. link out of her ear and looked at Sam, still lying on top of her.<p>

"Sam," she said softly. He looked peaceful, his head on her shoulder and his face next to hers.

She tapped him on the cheek, trying to get his attention, but his eyes remained closed. "Sam," she tried again a little louder.

She scanned the now darkened area immediately around her, looking for any new hazards. The situation had changed now that Sam was unable to protect himself from any impending danger.

"Well that might explain the interference," she thought, seeing a thick wire hanging down from the wall of debris a few feet away from them. "Might also explain the lights," she mumbled out loud as her eyes continued to adjust to the new lighting conditions. Most of the lights in their little igloo had gone out in the last explosion.

Putting her hand behind his head, Jules rolled Sam off of her and onto the dusty concrete floor. It wasn't that she didn't usually enjoy him lying against her with his head on her shoulder, but it was much more comfortable when he was conscious and supporting his own weight.

Sitting up next to him, with her left hand still behind his head, she placed two fingers on the side of his neck, just below his jaw line. She waited a moment and then let out a sigh of relief. His pulse was strong, so she decided that he probably wasn't seriously hurt, but that didn't tell her anything about what knocked him out in the first place.

She still wasn't sure if she had passed out momentarily as well, but that fact wasn't going to help Sam at all, she reasoned, refocusing on his limp form.

"C'mon, Sam, wake up!" she said a bit more urgently as she lightly slapped him on the side of the face.

As she continued to watch him nervously, she noticed that his hair felt wet and sticky in her hand. She gently pulled her hand out just enough to see a small amount of his blood in her palm before sliding it back to continue supporting his head, unsure if he may have also injured his neck.

She had just started looking around for the offending piece of debris when the screeching coming from their comm. links, his still in his ear and hers dangling from her vest, suddenly got much louder. She shut them both off before resuming her search.

Just as she caught sight of the slightly bloody piece of concrete about the size of a baseball about three feet from them, there was a bright flash on the other side of the small space as the wire began to spark wildly.

"Great," she mutters, "just what we needed." She managed to grab the strap of Sam's backpack that was just within reach and slid in under his head as a pillow. She got up and retrieved his riffle from where he had left it on the floor and brought it back to the far end of the igloo, as far away as she could get its live ammunition from the sparking wire and a source of ignition. She then returned to the center of the room where Sam was lying.

"I'm sorry, babe," she whispered as she looked down at him, "but this is probably going to hurt a bit." She took a deep breath, grabbed his wrists and dragged him across the dust and concrete covered floor to what she had decided was the safest place for them.

She sat back down next to him, placing his hand in hers. With her other hand, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and typed a text message to Sergeant Parker.

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><p>AN: This wasn't how I originally planned for this chapter to end, but it seemed like a good place to stop. The extra stuff floating around in my head might lead to the next chapter being put up sooner rather than later. :)


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: I originally thought that I'd get this chapter posted about a week ago, but school and a bit of writer's block got in the way. Hopefully this chapter was worth the wait, but let me know.

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><p><strong>Chapter 4<strong>

"See if you can find us a way up to the lobby without going through that crowd outside," Sergeant Parker asked Spike, pacing back and forth around the grenade damaged parking garage.

The situation had quickly gone from a fairly straightforward hostage negotiation to a much more complicated series of events, dividing Parker's focus between his team members upstairs pursuing an unknown subject without backup and their teammates in the igloo. He tried to hide his frustration from Spike. He had let his guard down, become a little too comfortable, and now almost his entire team was in jeopardy.

"Well," Spike answered slowly, studying the building layout on the screen in front of him. "The main elevator's blocked behind there," he motioned toward to wall of debris separating them from Sam and Jules. "And I don't think they can get to it either. There's a service elevator not too far from the main elevator which looks like it might be still accessible, but..." He paused as he quickly typed in a new request, pulling up data from the building's maintenance server.

"But what?" Greg questioned impatiently.

"Thought so. Service elevator's jammed at the 12th floor. Subject probably took it, so there's no way we can use it without them noticing. Stairs... stairs, where are the stairs?" Spike pondered, his eyes quickly moving back and forth between the screen and his surroundings.

"There you are!" he suddenly blurted out after a few moments. "The door should be right behind those cars over there," he pointed across the garage. " Looks like there's stairwell access on the main floor just next to the security desk, which is right where Ed and Wordy are right now."

"Pack up. We need to have as much manpower as possible available upstairs," Greg said quickly as his phone buzzed in his pocket. "I don't want them going in without backup."

"Shit," he muttered quietly to himself as he finished reading Jules' text. _Sam's down. I'm fine. Comms are dead._ "C'mon," he said urgently, starting to help Spike stow the mobile command station equipment. "We need to get this situation neutralized and the building secure ASAP so we can get EMS in here."

As Spike zipped the last gadgets safely in his backpack, Parker typed a message back to Jules as quickly as he could get his thumbs to move across the tiny keys. _Hang in there_.

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><p>"Where is he?" the man yelled at the pretty young woman behind the reception desk.<p>

"He's not here," she answered, trying her best to sound calm. She was glad she was sitting down because her trembling legs probably wouldn't have been able to keep to hold her up if she were standing.

"You'd better not be lying to me. If I find out that you are, there's going to be trouble," the man threatened, opening his jacket just enough for her to see the handle of the gun tucked into the waistband of his jeans.

Her eyes darted back to the duffel bag in his right hand, wondering what was in it and realising that she probably didn't really want to know.

"You know, I'm not sure I believe you," the man mocked her coldly. "He's here, _isn't_ he?"

"He's... he's in a meeting. He said he didn't want to be disturbed," the woman conceded nervously.

"Let's try this again, shall we?" he asked quietly. "Where... is... he?" He got louder with each word.

"I- I- I don't know!" the woman stuttered. "Maybe in one of the offices? Or... maybe the conference room? They move their meetings around."

"Well, if you see him," he said loudly as he moved in the direction of one of the doors towards the inner offices, "tell him an angry client is looking for him and not to go far. None of you want to make me any angrier." He lifted the duffel bag slightly, alluding to its possible contents, before yanking open a door and striding through, slamming the door behind him.

The woman looked across the desk to where another young woman, one of the office assistants, was hiding behind a large potted plant next to the water cooler. "Do you think he saw you?" she asked the assistant quietly.

"No, I'm pretty sure he didn't," she said with some certainty.

"Then get out of here!" the receptionist urged from behind the desk, picking up the phone to call the police but hanging up again quickly in a small panic. "Get security and the police. The phones are dead."

"You don't have to tell me twice," she answered, bolting from behind the plant and running for the door to the stairwell. With the surge of adrenaline coursing through her veins, she ran down the 12 flights of stairs faster than she thought possible.

She was so focused on getting to the security desk in the lobby that she almost ran into the tall brown haired police officer who had just stepped onto the main floor landing and was reaching for the door handle.

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><p><em>Well, what else are we supposed to do? <em> Jules thought, looking up from the text message her boss had just sent and surveying her surroundings again. There was no way to get both of them out of their current concrete prison, but even if there were, there was no way to tell if it was safer outside or staying where they were.

The explosions seemed to have stopped but the damaged concrete around the igloo was continuing to settle, with occasional pieces falling around them.

She feared for Sam, not knowing anything about what kind of condition he was in or if there was anything she could do to help him.

He looked so peaceful laying there, almost as if he were sleeping, which only added to Jules' anxiety. She knew that if given the choice, he would look focused, maybe even a little angry; peaceful was not a look he did often when they were on a call, generally reserved for moments when he was interacting with distraught victims after they were safely removed from the situation.

"Sam," she said softly, running her free hand through his hair, quietly appealing to whatever part of his brain that may have been aware of her presence.

She let her fingers run free in his short hair while her eyes flicked between his face and her surroundings, trying to stay vigilant. She didn't want to take her hands off of him because despite his lack of response, just the feel of his hand in hers and his hair between her fingers made her feel less alone.

After what felt like an eternity, though it may have been only five minutes or even five seconds, Jules had no idea, she heard it.

"Jules?" he whispered, his eyes still closed. "What happened?"


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: I just want to say sorry for the long delay between chapters, school got a little chaotic with assignments and midterms for a while, but here we go. Hopefully this will have been worth the wait for everybody. I also want to welcome the people who have alerted in the last couple of weeks. Nobody seems to be reviewing anymore though, tell me what you like, what you don't like - I welcome constructive criticism. Please? Also, I've decided that this is taking place sometime between Personal Effects and The Better Man.

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><p><strong>Chapter 5<strong>

Spike turned around just as the petite young blonde stepped down onto the landing and put his arms out to catch her as she ran into him.

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god," she said quickly over and over, still not realising she wasn't alone in the stairwell anymore. She hadn't realised the panic she had worked herself into while running down the stairs. Her heart was pounding partly because of the fear for the friend that she had just left alone up in the office.

"Whoa, calm down," Spike told her calmly. "It's going to be fine, you're safe now."

He pulled open the door to the lobby and after confirming that the area was deserted with the exception of his teammates and the security guard, escorted her out of the stairwell. As he was finding a chair for her, Greg emerged from the stairs.

"Okay, Team 1, looks like we've got at least one subject in the building," Greg began. "Distraction subjects claim the man who hired them said the CEO had to pay. What companies do you have on the 12th floor?" Greg asked, directing his question to the security guard.

"Boss, we've got a witness," Spike said, standing next to the woman. "She was running down the stairs just before you came up. What's your name?" he asked her quietly, still trying to help her calm down.

"Lisa," she answered quietly, barely above a whisper. "Lisa Clarkson." After a pause, she continued. "I work on the 12th floor in the head offices of TD Bank. He- he," she stammered as Spike kneeled down in front of her, bringing himself down to eye level with her.

"Shhh, it's okay," he told her quietly. "Take your time." As he tried to calm her, he realised that he was doing what Jules normally did, interact with the people while he sat in the truck and interacted with the electronics where he was most comfortable.

He was doing his best to push the worry for his two teammates to the back of his mind and focus on what was in front of him and what he could control when he heard Winnie's voice come to life in his ear.

"_Boss, __their __story __checks __out. __Both __Murray __and __Hanley __are __clean, __not __even __any __parking __tickets. __I __can__'__t __reach __any __family __members __though, __so __no __way __of __telling __if __they __might __know __this __guy __outside __of __an __internet __meeting.__" _

"Boss, we're going up," Ed said. "It's going to take us a little while to get up there. Feed us info on the fly."

"Go ahead," Greg answered. "12th floor. We'll send the floor plans to your PDAs on your way up."

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><p>"What happened, Jules?" Sam asked again, looking at the blood on the fingers that he had just run through his hair.<p>

"There was an explosion," she answered quietly, still holding onto his hand as if she might lose him again if she let go.

"Just one?" He raised his eyebrow sceptically. "Looks more like two or three, there's a lot of damage here, Jules."

Jules looked around, contemplating the damage and trying to decide how much he seemed to remember of the day's events and what to tell him.

"There were three," Jules conceded. "It was the third one that got you."

"What kind of explosions are we talking about?" he asked as she pulled a small bit of concrete out of his hair; between the blood, sweat and dust, it was starting to mat together.

"Grenades," she answered, letting go of his hand. "Can you roll over? I want to get a better look at the wound."

"Uh huh," he grunted as he rolled over and propped himself up on his forearms. "Do you know if the rest of the team is ok?"

"They're fine. They're going to finish the call before they try to dig us out." She unzipped her tactical vest and wiped her hands on the clean part of her shirt to get off as much dust and dirt as she could.

As she scooted over to get a better look at the wound to the back of his head, she noticed a couple of drops of blood glistening on the floor where he had just been. She hated to see him injured but she was constantly being reminded of the hazards of the job they did. It was a fact that she had accepted long ago, but acceptance didn't make it any easier to deal with.

Her feelings for Sam made it just that much harder. She trusted her teammates to an extent she never would have thought possible before she joined the ranks of SRU. They were a family to her and she loved them like family, five brothers who looked out for her like a younger sister but respected her like an older sister, but Sam... Sam was different. He was more than just a brother to her, he always had been and she hoped he always would be.

"I guess this is why they don't use grenades for renovation work," he laughed quietly at his own bad joke, "they forgot to give us a door."

A small smile came to her lips as she examined the wound. He was always trying to get her to smile or laugh, even in situations where it was slightly inappropriate. _No, __especially __when __it__'__s __inappropriate_, she thought, remembering the night before when he had waited for the saddest part of the made-for-TV movie they were watching to start tickling her.

"You are so immature sometimes," she said instead of giving in and laughing like he wanted.

"Can I blame it on the rock?" he asked, reaching out for the blood-speckled piece of concrete he'd noticed just a few feet away from him. "This _is_ the one, isn't it?"

She paused from picking bits of debris out of his hair from around the gash to look at the chunk in his hand. "Sure looks like it. Are you planning on arresting it and charging it with assaulting a police officer or something?" She raised her eyebrow and let a cheeky smile come to her lips before going back to cleaning up Sam's cut.

"Wait a minute," he said as he rolled onto his side to look at her. "_Now_ who's the immature one?

* * *

><p>"Spike, what've you got for me?" Ed demanded as he and Wordy continued to pound their way up the stairs and were just passing the tenth floor.<p>

"_Ok, __twelfth __floor __is __taken __up __pretty __much __entirely __by __TD, __but __there__'__s __a __couple __of __unrelated __offices __in __the __north-east __corner. __Coming __out __of __the __stairway __you__'__re __going __to __have __a __reception __area __right __in __front __of __you. __The __subject __went __through __there __to __the __offices __behind.__There__'__s __only __one __other __exit __to __that __section __of __offices. __It__'__s __at __the __end __of __the __hallway __if __you __turn __right __coming __out __of __the __stairs.__"_ Spike answered from his new position at the security desk. Greg had taken over with Lisa, trying to get as much information as he possibly could.

"Copy that," Ed stated. "You got video?"

"_Nope, no cameras."_

"K, we'll have to work without them. Wordy, we're gonna go around and cut him off. If he doesn't know that exit's there we can take him by surprise."

When they reached the twelfth floor landing, Wordy threaded a camera under the door and paused for a moment. "Hallway's clear."

"Boss, we're going in," Ed stated as he pushed the door open.

* * *

><p>"Copy that, Eddie," Greg said, looking up from Lisa for a moment. He suddenly stiffened.<p>

That moment was just long enough for him to see someone in a hooded sweatshirt approaching the glass front doors. "How'd he get past the perimeter?" Greg demanded.

The hooded stranger yanked open one of the doors and tossed something in before turning and running.

"Take cover!" Greg yelled as the little red ball that had been thrown in rolled irregularly across the floor.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: I feel pretty bad about the ridiculously long delay between chapters. Life got in the way and then my flow was gone, but anyway, here's another chapter. It's occurred to me that I've sorta thrown the Flashpoint timeline out the window with this. There is a reference to Shockwave, so this happens after that, but Wordy is still there and Raf is non-existent. I like Wordy and I'm not really sure yet what I think of Raf, so this works for me.

* * *

><p>Nothing happened.<p>

Spike poked his head up from behind the security desk where they had taken cover. He looked at the small red object on the floor and raised his eyebrow. "Is that what I think it is?" he asked quietly.

"Careful, Spike," Greg cautioned as Spike got up and stepped around the desk to get a better look at the object.

"It _is_!" he said, with an excited smirk as he approached the red ball and picked it up. "Now all I need is a slingshot."

"What is it?" Greg asked, finally relaxing as he watched his teammate tossing the ball up in the air.

"It's an Angry Bird," Spike explained. "I guess somebody thinks there are a bunch of pigs upstairs."

"An angry bird? I see the eyebrows, but," Greg paused, trying to wrap his mind around it, "pigs? You lost me, Spike."

"It's a game. The pigs stole the birds' eggs, so the birds got mad. You slingshot the birds to kill the pigs and destroy their hiding places," Spike explained as he sat back down at the desk, putting the little red plush bird down next to the monitor.

"Am I really that old?" Greg mumbled to himself just as Ed's voice crackled in his ear.

"_What's going on doing there, guys? You yelled to take cover and then nothing."_

"False alarm, it was just an... angry bird?" Greg responded with a bit of uncertainty.

"_Right up Spike's alley. Spike, you got anything we can use up here? Video, audio, cell phones, names, anything? We're running blind up here."_

"I'm coming up with nothing, Ed. There's no video; not sure what they were thinking when they decided where to install the cameras. I've got some outside stuff, some upper floor corridors but nothing from the floor you're on, nothing from the stairwells. There've been no 911 calls either, which is odd but not unheard off, but there's nothing to get a lead from, nobody who can tell us what's going on in there." Spike paused, staring at the useless images on the screen when several of them suddenly changed.

"What just happened?" Greg asked, looking over Spike's shoulder at screen.

"That's weird," Spike mumbled. "Ed, I might have something for you. Gimme a minute."

"_Copy that_."

"They've got alternating camera views. See that camera dome by the door?" Spike pointed towards a black glass dome hanging from the ceiling near the front doors. "Usually there's only one camera in there, sometimes they rotate, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they're empty, it's almost impossible to tell just by looking at them. This place, though, this place is unique. There are two cameras in some of the domes, maybe more. Not all of the feeds are showing at once, so it's entirely possible there are other views," he explained, typing away seeing if he could get access to any as yet unseen camera feeds.

"_Spike, I see one up here_," Wordy piped up, pointing out the dome to Ed. It was barely visible from where they were standing.

"If there's one, there's probably more up there, I just have to find them," Spike stated, furrowing his eyebrows and biting his lip in determination. "Got it! There's a few up there that are on private feeds, probably recording somewhere up there to be reviewed after an incident. Why they thought they needed to encrypt the video and hide them is beyond me. I've got eyes guys."

"_Talk to me, Spike_," Ed demanded. "_What've we got up here?_"

"Cubicles, cubicles, more cubicles," Spike mumbled, scanning the new video feeds. "Well, hello there. Didn't think you could hide forever, did you?" he asked the man on screen when the images suddenly flicked to their subject, Spike typing away again. "Guys, check your PDAs for a picture of the subject. He's currently armed with a handgun, probably a Glock, and it looks like he's very familiar with it."

* * *

><p>"Copy that. Where is he?" Ed asked as they stepped into a room full of cubicles and scared employees.<p>

"_He's wandering an empty hallway. Whoever he's looking for, he obviously hasn't found them yet."_

"How much time do we have in here, Spike?" Wordy asked, coaxing a couple of employees out from under the desks where they had been hiding.

"_You've got time. He has no immediate access to your location. I'll keep you posted."_

* * *

><p>"You know, I'm starting to think you're an explosion-magnet," Jules said, taking a break from pulling cement bits out of his hair and staring intently into Sam's eyes.<p>

"So, Spike's a bomb-guru and I'm an explosion-magnet?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow. "Sounds like I drew the short straw. There are so many things that I'd prefer over explosion-magnet, like... how about 'chick-magnet'? Oh wait, I already am." He stuck his tongue out at her playfully.

Jules rolled her eyes. "I'm serious. This isn't the first time I've been worried about you almost getting yourself blown up. You were out cold last time too."

"I was in capable hands. Besides, I'll bet Spike had Sarge and Ed more worried than I had you."

"Spike takes the possibility of getting blown up as a challenge, it doesn't seem to matter how much people are worried about him. But you and bombs, there's nothing to do but sit and wait... and then get stitches. You're going to turn into a pin cushion if you're not careful!" Jules teased.

"Want to poke me then? So... do we have a bet?"

"I'm kinda biased, you know. What makes you think I'm going to admit Spike had them more worried than you had me?"

"He had you worried too, that skewed your worry meter. How about I make you a deal?" Sam paused, starting to pick up debris chunks from around him and tossing them at a pillar several feet away. "How about this, if you admit that people were more worried about Spike than about me, I will.." He stopped, visibly considering what he could offer that she wouldn't be able to refuse."

"Out with it, babe, and it had better be good, cause I'm starting to think we're going to have a whole lot of time to kill down here."


End file.
